We had a paper plane throwing competition at our high school (20 years ago), hosted by the physics department. The competition was school wide, with many varying entries from all ages, from simple planes, through to hopelessly over-engineered flops.
On entrant wrapped a ball of paper entirely in sticky tape to make a big solid ball, which he threw a VERY long way, but was disqualified. The rules was that it had to be made of paper, and sticky tape was allowed to stick it together, but they felt this entry violated the intent of the special sticky tape exemption, with the ball being more tape than paper. (another entry had the same idea, but used a rock inside, so that was definitely disqualified)
However, another entry was made entirely of paper, and was also disqualified. Someone entered a very tiny scrap of tissue paper. They lauched it from the start, and it floated up, over the buildings, way outside the range of other entries, and was never seen again. As it couldn't be measured, it was also disqualified. I was very disappointed at this. Someone thought outside the box, got lucky with wind conditions on the day, met all the rules, totally exceeded the challenge, and was disqualified for it, because the landing couldn't be measured.
Surfdabbler, that reminds me of an old story about a physics class that was asked how to use a barometer to measure the height of a very tall building.
The "right" answer was to make air pressure measurements at top and bottom and, using standard assumptions about how pressure falls with altitude, calculate the height. But there are loads of other answers. My favorite was to knock on the door of the building manager and offer him a nice new barometer if he tells you the building's height. :)
Surfdabbler, that reminds me of an old story about a physics class that was asked how to use a barometer to measure the height of a very tall building.
Yes, I remember that. Another method was to measure shadows, and multiply the barometer's height by the shadow ratios. Or, drop the barometer off the top, and time how long it takes to fall to the bottom.
127 after a bazillion tries! Tip: the plane will do the opposite of the initial tilt. So move it slightly down as you go to the right and the plane will climb.
If the plane loops outside the window, it slows down, and the 120s is the limit. However if you can throw it hard and not loop it, then it can keep it's speed, and get over the first few clouds, although there's a big cloud there that I still can't get over, and it kills the speed every time. If I can get over that, I think it will go further than 141. :)
ugh I can't get more than two of those circle thingies, it's okay though, I have to wait till 11:10 for my challenge score to be updated anyway (not a member yet)
Time to retire on 141.798. I'll check the scoreboard again when I get back from lunch to see how you are going. You know what they say, everyone's a winner in paper plane throwing. There are no losers...that is, except for all you guys who I beat. :)
Hey, the first time I did it, it started inside a house. Now it's starting inside an office. On my second try, I managed to do two loops and 41.984m. Now I did 3 loops and 110.173m.
I bought some origami paper that you can fold to make paper aeroplanes, as they're printed on the paper. I haven't made any of them as they're a gift for a nephew or someone.
nope always has been dorissssssssss,
there is a way to cheat, i havent tried it, move the plane back as far as it can go, then move the mouse outside of the box to where you want it to go.
haha
i must be bored
